It will be available to eligible patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukaemia or small lymphocytic lymphoma.

Normally Ibrutinib is used when patients have not responded to first line treatment with chemo-immuno-therapy.

This isn't the first time the government has added a life-changing drug to the pharmaceutical benefits scheme: in July, Turnbull announced that lung and renal cancer drug Opdivo would be subsidised at a cost of $1.1 billion.

Correction: A headline on this story originally stated that the price had been reduced by 4600 percent. This is incorrect.